This application relates generally to a debris monitoring system for an oil distribution system.
Gas turbine engines are known and, typically, utilized to drive aircraft. A gas turbine engine typically includes a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. Air entering the compressor section is compressed and delivered into the combustion section where it is mixed with fuel and ignited to generate a high-speed exhaust gas flow. The high-speed exhaust gas flow expands through the turbine section to drive the compressor and the fan section. The compressor section typically includes low and high pressure compressors, and the turbine section includes low and high pressure turbines. More recently, gas turbine engines have used gear reductions to allow their fan sections to rotate at different speeds than their turbine sections.
Oil lubrication systems have historically been used to improve the operation of machinery such as gas turbine engines. Metallic debris in an oil lubrication system may indicate impending component failure, so timely discovery of debris in the oil can contribute to the performance and longevity of a machine. Routine manual inspection of oil distribution systems has been employed, but more recently automatic, condition based oil debris monitoring systems have been discovered to be simpler and less time consuming.
One known oil debris monitoring system uses a sensor having a coil on an oil line configured to provide a signal upon detecting a magnetic disruption consistent with metallic debris in the oil line. Such sensors are susceptible to generating false positives because available signal processing technology is sometimes unable to distinguish electromagnetic noise in the environment from debris. Faults in oil debris monitoring system hardware have further contributed to false positive signals.
False positive signals may result in unneeded maintenance downtime.